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BBC Four Collections,

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specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.

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For this collection, Sir David Attenborough

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has chosen documentaries from the start of his career.

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More programmes on this theme

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and other BBC Four Collections are available on BBC iPlayer.

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CHANTING, DIDGERIDOO PLAYS

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This is a sacred place,

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a cave sacred to the Aborigines of this part of northern Australia.

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Here they come to perform their rituals.

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The clefts here are filled with the bones of their dead,

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and these rocks they have decorated

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until they glow with the colours of a hundred upon hundred of paintings.

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Some of these paintings are undoubtedly very old.

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The local people don't even know who made these.

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They explain them by saying

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that they're the self-portraits of a spirit people, the Mimi.

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The Mimi have extremely thin bodies.

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There the legs, the torso and the arms.

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So thin, in fact, that they can't go out in a high wind,

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as they might blow away or their frail bodies be broken.

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But they live and they hunt and they eat just like ordinary Aborigines.

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And this one has got a fan made from a goose's wing in this hand,

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and in the other hand, a woomera,

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a spear-thrower, in which he's holding a great, long,

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two-pronged spear.

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These are benevolent spirits,

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but these, painted not in white but in red, are extremely evil.

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These are women. There are her legs, her torso, her arms and her head.

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And these steal the souls of the sick and roast them and eat them.

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And in her hands, she is holding a loop of string

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which is a magical device

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to enable her to travel silently throughout the night.

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The Mimis live in clefts of rock all around here, but you never see them.

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And the reason?

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Because the Mimis, whenever they see someone coming,

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can blow on the surface of the rock, the rock parts,

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the Mimi slips inside and disappears.

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Remarkable though this type of painting is,

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there's another type of painting here

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which is perhaps even more extraordinary,

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and this has been made comparatively recently.

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Here is an example of it - a turtle.

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And this turtle is painted in a style which is quite different.

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The artist is showing not just what he sees but what he knows is there.

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For inside the animals that are painted in this style,

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you can see their heart and their stomach and their gut,

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their skeleton and their muscles.

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There are also barramundi, the best-tasting of all the local fish.

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And the kangaroos with their skeletons

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and internal organs clearly shown.

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And among the animals, stencilled handprints

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and strange, enigmatic designs of humanlike figures.

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Precisely because these paintings are so recent,

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they have a particular fascination.

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For in many ways, they are similar to the first paintings

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mankind ever made, during the Stone Age,

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20,000 years ago in the caves of Europe.

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Both prehistoric and Aboriginal paintings show similar subjects.

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Both are often superimposed haphazardly, one on top of the other.

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Most important of all, both were painted by people

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living at much the same stage of technological development.

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For the Aborigines are still wandering hunters

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with no settled villages,

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no knowledge of agriculture, and no herds or flocks.

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No-one can ever be certain

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why prehistoric man produced his astonishing art,

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but we can discover how and why these designs were made.

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For the Aborigines still paint.

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From them, therefore,

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we may be able to get some insight into the very origins of art.

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The most accomplished painter we met was named Magani.

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He lives in one of the remotest parts of Australia - Arnhem Land,

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a vast, empty wilderness on the northern tropical coast.

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His tribal territory is flat bush country with few rocks or caves,

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so Magani has to find something other than stone on which to paint.

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And he uses the bark

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of a kind of eucalyptus tree called the stringybark.

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He was very particular in selecting his tree.

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Most he rejected at a glance as being unsuitable.

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Either they were not big enough or had been damaged by a bushfire

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or were infested with wood-boring insects.

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Even those which seemed at first sight to be suitable

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might prove to be faulty, with bark that cracked or was too thin.

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And he might have to half-strip four or five trees

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before he at last found one

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which would provide him with the wide, smooth, flexible sheet of bark

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free of knotholes, which he wanted for his painting.

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For further treatment, the bark had to be taken back to his home,

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a small shelter of branches in a clearing.

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He lives quite close to a newly founded government station,

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but this, in fact, has hardly changed his traditional way of life.

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And it's in a place like this that he prefers to sleep and live and paint.

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The bark must first be stripped of its rough, outside, fibrous layers.

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As it dries in the hot sun,

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the bark curls into a tube on which it's quite impossible to paint.

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To make it straight, it must be heated over a fire,

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and the strips of the outer bark provide a convenient fuel.

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It will lie on the ground, weighted with stones,

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for two or three days, so that it hardens into a flat sheet.

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This, then, is Magani's canvas. His colours are also found close by.

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They are mineral ochres,

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and the deposits in which they occur are well known.

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Indeed, sometimes these sites are recognised as the places where,

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during the Creation, the blood of one of the ancestral spirits

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was spilt and soaked into the ground.

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Among the rocks, he finds little pebbles of iron oxide,

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and he tests the quality of their colour by scratching them on a stone.

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These provide him with both red and yellow pigments.

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One of Magani's helpers and close friends, Jara Billy,

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is also out in the bush.

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He is gathering orchids, for these too are necessary for the painting.

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The juice of their tubers makes an excellent fixative

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which prevents the paint from flaking easily.

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The method of using the orchid is quite simple.

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You bite it...dip it into water...

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and then smear a rough outline of the design you're about to paint.

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Magani has four colours at his disposal -

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red and yellow iron oxides,

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a black made from charcoal, and white from china clay,

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which he collects from pits dug in the mangrove swamps

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down by the seashore.

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His brushes are also extremely simple.

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This one is simply a twig with a burred end,

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and he uses it for making thick lines and for stippling.

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He also has another stick, the end of which he has chewed

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until it's widely splayed.

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And this he uses for putting on broad strokes of colour.

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A third, and the one that requires most skill in using,

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is a twig with a few trailing fibres tied to the end.

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And this he employs for the delicate task of cross-hatching.

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Everyone in the neighbourhood freely admitted

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that Magani was the best artist in their tribe,

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but that doesn't mean that he was the only one.

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Indeed, we met no man who, when asked,

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did not agree immediately that he was a painter.

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Painting, for these people, is not something you look at

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but something that everybody does as a matter of course.

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Often, men would come and sit by Magani in a sociable way,

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take up - unasked - one of his brushes,

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and start work on some corner of the bark that was blank.

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But there were few who had the skill,

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the aptitude or the passion to paint as intensively as Magani did.

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He worked fast and with great neatness and assurance.

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It seemed as though he had clearly in his mind the completed design.

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And although he occasionally made mistakes in outline,

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and rubbed part of it out with a wettened finger,

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he never changed his mind about the position of a figure.

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I asked Magani why he painted.

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His first explanation was a very simple one.

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Because he could sell his paintings at the government station.

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But this couldn't be a complete answer,

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for he and his people were painting similar designs on bark

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long before there were any Europeans here to buy them.

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Why?

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Because, he said, he liked doing so.

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And for some time, this was the only explanation I could find.

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But later, I was to get a deeper insight into his motives.

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I was to discover, in a dramatic and unexpected way,

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that Magani didn't always paint

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merely as a way of passing the time or amusing himself,

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but that his art played an integral and vital part in tribal ritual.

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At the end of a week, the whole bark was covered with designs.

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Some of them were easily recognisable,

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but there were others that were more mysterious.

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Micky, tell me about these pictures.

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Er...what's that?

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- MICKY: Dog. - A dog.

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- DAVID: And here? - Heart.

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DAVID: Heart. Heart.

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And this?

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- MICKY: Gut, you know. - Gut, gut.

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I see. Tell me about this place here.

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- MICKY: Two women and one boy... - Two women... Yeah.

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MICKY: ..and making fire.

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- DAVID: Making a fire? - Making fire.

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- Lay down like that now. - And they lay down?

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Yeah.

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DAVID: And what are these?

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Black-head lizard.

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DAVID: Oh, a lizard with a... with a big beard round its...

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- Big fur, big earholes. - We call him frill lizard.

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- That's it. - Is that him?

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Yes.

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- DAVID: What's that there? - Little goanna.

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DAVID: Little goanna. Here... What's that?

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HE TUTS

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- He makes a noise like that? - Yeah.

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- In night-time? - Night...

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- Hm? - Before the light, him talk.

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Ah, yes. Before the light, he talks.

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- Yes. And what's this fellow? - A goanna, little goanna.

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DAVID: A little goanna.

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And along here, you tell me the story along here.

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- MICKY: This one... - Yes.

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He go...look round for a wallaby.

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DAVID: He looks around for a wallaby, yeah.

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- MICKY: Gets his woomera... - Gets his spear-thrower.

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MICKY: Throws spear.

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Gets his spear-thrower and throws a spear.

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- MICKY: See him, this wallaby. - And he kills the wallaby.

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MICKY: He kills it.

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- DAVID: And what's this? - Ah...bush tucker.

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- DAVID: Bush tucker. - Bush tucker.

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- DAVID: The yam. - That's right.

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DAVID: And this fellow?

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- MICKY: Emu. - Emu. The big bird.

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MICKY: That's bird, yeah.

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Ah, yeah. And down here? What happened here?

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WHISPERS: Yurlungur.

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WHISPERS: Why you talk so soft?

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WHISPERS: Yurlungur, if we talk hard, might hear me.

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If we talk hard, who might hear?

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Young boy and little boy and woman.

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Young boy and little boy and woman, and they mustn't hear?

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That's right.

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DAVID: What is this fellow, Yurlungur, that's so secret?

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- MICKY: Business in Madayin. - Business in Madayin.

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- DAVID: With corroboree. - That's right.

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DAVID: Is this a spirit?

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- MICKY: God made... - God made this?

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Yeah.

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Yurlungur where? Over this way?

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- In the bush, yeah. - In the bush?

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That's right.

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Maybe you're thinking all right for me to see him?

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Me no woman - all right for me to go?

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- All right. - You show me?

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Uh...

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- If you like, you can go. - You'll take me?

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And you look on Yurlungur.

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- You show me Yurlungur? - Yes.

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Good, Micky. Thank you very much. We go.

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'I had little idea as to what this Yurlungur could be.

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'Obviously it was a spirit, but equally clearly,

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'it was also some material but highly sacred object

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'concealed away in the bush,

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'which only privileged people were allowed to see.

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'As I followed Magani, I didn't know what to expect.

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'And then, half a mile away, we came to a small shelter of branches.

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'Beside it sat Jara Billy, Magani's helper,

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'the man who had collected the orchids.

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'And Jara Billy was busy painting a ten-foot pole.'

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This...Yurlungur.

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- Yes. - Ah.

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'It was magnificently decorated.

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'But it was only after I had looked at it for some minutes

248
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'that I suddenly realised that it was hollow.

249
00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:03,040
'One end of it had been plastered with beeswax

250
00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:05,200
'and fashioned into a mouthpiece.

251
00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,640
'Yurlungur was a trumpet.

252
00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:12,160
'And to confirm this, Magani showed me how it was played.'

253
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LOW DRONING

254
00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:50,280
Day after day, Magani and Jara Billy had been coming here,

255
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:52,720
secretly, to work on the trumpet.

256
00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:55,600
Along its length, they had painted designs of goannas,

257
00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:59,120
large lizards, and the symbol they used was exactly the same

258
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,320
as the one Magani had painted on the bark.

259
00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:06,280
Goannas, clearly, played an important part in the Yurlungur cult.

260
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:08,760
But how...I did not yet know.

261
00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:12,040
Among the goannas, there also appeared another symbol

262
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:13,520
that I recognised.

263
00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:17,640
This was the design that I had seen on the bark and asked Magani about -

264
00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:21,120
the clue that had led us here in the first place.

265
00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:25,160
This was the emblem of the Yurlungur spirit itself.

266
00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:28,640
Although a great deal of work had already been lavished

267
00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:31,760
on the trumpet, there was much more yet to be done.

268
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,360
Magani said that all these preparations had to be made

269
00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:36,680
each time the ceremony was held.

270
00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:40,360
I asked him why, if the ceremony was repeated again and again,

271
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they couldn't use the same trumpet.

272
00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,440
And he replied that after the ritual was over,

273
00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:49,000
the trumpet was quite worthless, and they threw it away.

274
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,320
Usually, they buried it in a sandbank down by the river,

275
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:54,960
so that women and children wouldn't see it.

276
00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:58,400
Sometimes, he said, they might dig it up again on a later occasion

277
00:16:58,400 --> 00:16:59,600
and repaint it.

278
00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:01,880
But usually, they didn't bother

279
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:04,560
and started afresh with a new piece of wood.

280
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,960
The act of painting, it seemed, was an end in itself,

281
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a part of the ritual.

282
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,880
Already, the trumpet was a sacred object.

283
00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:15,000
Every now and then, work stopped,

284
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,240
and Magani lay down to blow the trumpet

285
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,880
while Jara Billy sang a chant to the Yurlungur spirit.

286
00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:25,320
For each of the designs had to be "sung in" to make them good.

287
00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:29,160
Once, as I sat beside it, watching Magani paint,

288
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:32,400
I unthinkingly reached across it to pick up something.

289
00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:34,080
Magani reproved me.

290
00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:38,600
It was wrong and disrespectful to reach across Yurlungur in this way.

291
00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:43,080
On another occasion, Magani's eyes suddenly filled with tears,

292
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and he had to put down his brush.

293
00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:47,960
No-one spoke for several minutes.

294
00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:52,040
Later, I asked Jara Billy why Magani had been so deeply moved,

295
00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:56,040
and he replied that the last time Magani had painted such a trumpet

296
00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,520
was for the funeral ceremony of his father.

297
00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:05,800
And so, day after day, Magani and Jara Billy continued to work.

298
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,920
When they left each evening to return to their families,

299
00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:12,280
the trumpet was carefully hidden away in the back of the shelter

300
00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:16,000
and covered with bark and leaves, so that no woman or child,

301
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,200
or man from another clan, should set eyes on it.

302
00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,800
When all the painting was at last finished,

303
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:24,680
the trumpet was still not complete.

304
00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:27,280
Bands of scarlet feathers from the breast of a parakeet

305
00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,520
had to be carefully bound round each end.

306
00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:42,640
And now, once more,

307
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:47,280
a song had to be chanted to Yurlungur to sanctify the completed trumpet.

308
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CHANTING AND DRONING

309
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:03,120
The ritual painting of Yurlungur has been going on for over a week now

310
00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:06,120
in that secret shelter away in the bush.

311
00:20:06,120 --> 00:20:09,240
And for much of that time, we've been sitting with the men,

312
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:10,600
watching them painting,

313
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:13,920
and trying to discover the legends that surround Yurlungur.

314
00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:16,080
It seems that, in the Dreamtime,

315
00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:19,440
that's to say before there were any people in this land,

316
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,280
there were two ancestral sisters.

317
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:23,800
Their names were Boaliri and "Missal-goee".

318
00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:26,120
And they came walking through this country,

319
00:20:26,120 --> 00:20:28,760
naming the animals and the plants as they came.

320
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:31,360
"Missal-goee" was expecting a child.

321
00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:34,920
Boaliri gathered a lot of food, including a lot of goannas,

322
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:36,400
for their evening meal.

323
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,400
And they went down to a water hole by the Goyder River,

324
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:40,960
which is just over there.

325
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,600
And there, "Missal-goee" had her baby.

326
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:46,760
It was a boy and it was called Julunggul.

327
00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:50,680
Unknown to the sisters, the water hole was the home of a great serpent.

328
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,840
And in the depths of the water, he heard the noise of the sisters

329
00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:55,520
and he came out.

330
00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,320
Then there followed a great battle,

331
00:20:58,320 --> 00:20:59,720
and at the end of this battle,

332
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:01,800
Boaliri, "Missal-goee" - the two sisters -

333
00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,080
and the baby and all the goannas were eaten by the serpent.

334
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,680
And the serpent, whose name was Yurlungur,

335
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,600
then looked up into the sky and blew, and the sky filled with heavy clouds.

336
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,600
And then there was a great storm, which lasted for a long time.

337
00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:19,240
And Yurlungur, the serpent, arched up in the sky, like a rainbow,

338
00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:21,560
and he spoke to the other serpents in this country,

339
00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:23,200
telling them of what had happened.

340
00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:28,000
And he...his voice was thunder and his tongue was lightning.

341
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,280
When the rains came to the end, Yurlungur returned to the water hole,

342
00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:36,160
and before he disappeared he spat out the two sisters,

343
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,320
and the baby boy, and all the goannas.

344
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:42,440
It seems, in fact, that Yurlungur is the symbol of the rainy season,

345
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,120
the rainy season that is due to begin here

346
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:47,440
in about three or four weeks' time.

347
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:51,480
He figures as a great trumpet in nearly all the important ceremonies

348
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:54,440
of these particular tribes around here.

349
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,880
The one that they're preparing for now is one which is carried out

350
00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:01,840
by the men of the goanna totem, the goanna clan.

351
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:04,320
It is not a rain-making ceremonial,

352
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,680
but a ceremonial in which they re-enact the legends

353
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,040
and observe the secret designs and the secret dances

354
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:16,080
so that the young men of the tribe may know of the cult of Yurlungur.

355
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,320
During the dance, the trumpet - Yurlungur -

356
00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:22,920
will emerge for the first time out of this shelter,

357
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:26,080
and it will eat up the goanna men,

358
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,920
symbolised by the trumpet being passed over them.

359
00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:31,920
And then, at the end of the dance, the rains will come to an end

360
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:35,080
and the men themselves will leap out as goannas

361
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:38,720
that are being regurgitated to take their life in this land.

362
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,040
But before any of that can happen,

363
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,760
the men must have painted on their flesh

364
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,040
the secret symbol of the goanna.

365
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:52,000
They painted the goanna in exactly the same way as the one we had seen

366
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,200
first on the bark painting and then on the Yurlungur trumpet.

367
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:57,840
The shading, the representation of the heart and gut,

368
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,280
the position of the legs - all were the same.

369
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:04,640
The execution of each design lasted as long as an hour,

370
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,760
and while it went on, the men lay motionless with eyes closed,

371
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,760
almost as though they were in a trance.

372
00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:15,840
They had assembled here early in the morning,

373
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,920
but it wasn't until seven hours later that all were decorated.

374
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:21,800
They sat about in a group,

375
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,640
awaiting the beginning of their act of worship,

376
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:27,000
when, together, they would enter the shelter

377
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:30,400
and lie motionless in the shade, waiting to be summoned by the snake.

378
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,760
TRUMPET PLAYS

379
00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:01,760
As the voice of the snake sounded, so it called out to the goanna men

380
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,560
from the shelter of branches that represented the sacred well

381
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:07,480
by the Goyder River.

382
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,200
CHANTING AND DRONING

383
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:19,280
As they came, they postured before the snake,

384
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:21,960
rearing up as a goanna will do when alarmed.

385
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,560
In groups of two or three, they crawled out from the shelter

386
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:42,480
to kneel in the dust in front of the roaring snake.

387
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,720
At last, all the men have been called out,

388
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,880
and Yurlungur the python passes over them, swallowing them.

389
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,920
And now the moment comes for their regurgitation.

390
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,480
So, Magani showed us that painting for him and his people

391
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:14,720
played an essential part in their lives,

392
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:18,120
a vital element in their magical and religious beliefs.

393
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:21,720
But whereas bark painting and body painting

394
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,600
and painting of objects like Yurlungur still goes on,

395
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:29,200
most of the cave painting, it seems, came to an end about 50 years ago.

396
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,720
But you can still find old men who will tell you

397
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,640
that the reason these cave paintings were made was also a magical one.

398
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:39,200
They believe that, when they painted the picture of a barramundi fish,

399
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:42,800
they were working a magic which ensured that the barramundi fish

400
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:44,760
would continue to be abundant.

401
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,600
But are all these paintings magical?

402
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,800
Well, here and there in these caves you can find a painting

403
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:52,840
where it seems as though the artist made it

404
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:54,520
simply because he was noting down

405
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,640
something that interested or amused him.

406
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:02,040
Here is an old flintlock pistol that possibly dates

407
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,160
from the time when the white man first came to this country.

408
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:09,120
And elsewhere, you can see pictures of rifles...

409
00:28:09,120 --> 00:28:11,840
and ships.

410
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,040
Maybe this is art for art's sake.

411
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,880
Certainly Magani and the painters like him

412
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,400
make their bark paintings not for any magical reason,

413
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:22,720
but simply because they enjoy doing so,

414
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:24,360
and because they can sell them.

415
00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:27,320
Already their paintings are becoming more widely appreciated,

416
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:30,280
and the few examples that come out of this part of the world

417
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,960
are eagerly bought by private collectors and museums

418
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:35,920
and art galleries for ever-increasing prices.

419
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,080
Maybe as the demand increases, their work will deteriorate

420
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,120
and become slick and mechanical.

421
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,080
But, so far, that hasn't happened.

422
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,400
So far, although many of the painters of Arnhem Land

423
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,320
are increasingly in contact with the outside world,

424
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,040
their lives are still governed by their tribal rituals

425
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:58,480
and they continue to employ the symbols prescribed by their beliefs.

426
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,800
Many of their paintings, though stylised, are easily understood.

427
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:04,680
Yurlungur, the snake, appears again and again -

428
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,520
the zigzag borders framing this painting

429
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:09,520
prove to be the snake's body.

430
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:13,640
But often the designs are so stylised that they are totally unrecognisable,

431
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:15,320
except to the initiated.

432
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:19,920
These are the tracks of birds running between the bulbs of water lilies.

433
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:24,360
Sometimes the patterns are totally abstract and geometrical,

434
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:28,000
and the finished composition bears a strong resemblance to the pictures

435
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,520
of some modern European abstract painters.

436
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,360
And so the paintings of the artists of Arnhem land,

437
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:38,080
which are so intimately associated with their tribal beliefs,

438
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,520
not only hark back to the very origins of art in prehistory,

439
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,840
but seem also to have foreshadowed some of the latest

440
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:48,520
and most sophisticated styles of 20th-century painting.

441
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:53,000
CHANTING, DIDGERIDOO PLAYS